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Should the total number of boats on the system be capped?


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What with the covid-driven rush to buy narrowboats, combined with the endless stream of newspaper articles about idylic boat life, the overall numbers of boats on the system seems to be set to continue to rise for some time to come.  Surely, eventually some kind of breaking point will come where the canals are just overloaded in too many areas.

 

I can imagine a future where in order to be granted a new licence, you'll need a home mooring, thus placing an upper limit on boats.  Those with an existing continuous cruising declaration will be allowed to continue, but no more new ones will be allowed.

 

Thoughts?  Or is there a better way?  Or is it not an issue?

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11 minutes ago, doratheexplorer said:

I can imagine a future where in order to be granted a new licence, you'll need a home mooring, thus placing an upper limit on boats

 

Not until the British Waterways Act 1995 is replaced by new primary legislation.

 

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Should the total number of boats on the system be capped?

 

Yes, definitely. After we've launched ours in a few months ?

 

We come from a lumpy water background and currently own another boat but had been thinking of exploring the inland waterways for some time. Covid wasn't & isn't a factor. We looked at numerous used boats but never found the right boat (certainly saw lots of wrong 'uns) and in the end thought, sod it, we'll have a shell built and fit one out ourselves and get everything we want (eventually). We should take delivery in a couple of weeks. Then the fun(?) begins.

 

I suspect that once people are able to jet off on package holidays again the bottom might well fall out of the used boat market. But what do I know.

 

 

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1 minute ago, Jackofalltrades said:

Should the total number of boats on the system be capped?

 

Yes, definitely. After we've launched ours in a few months ?

 

We come from a lumpy water background and currently own another boat but had been thinking of exploring the inland waterways for some time. Covid wasn't & isn't a factor. We looked at numerous used boats but never found the right boat (certainly saw lots of wrong 'uns) and in the end thought, sod it, we'll have a shell built and fit one out ourselves and get everything we want (eventually). We should take delivery in a couple of weeks. Then the fun(?) begins.

 

I suspect that once people are able to jet off on package holidays again the bottom might well fall out of the used boat market. But what do I know.

 

 

In your last sentence you have hit the nail bang on the head, that is precisely what will happen.

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1 minute ago, Tonka said:

And how does capping the number of boats help the boat building companies stay in business.

I dont think it will happen but reality is that over years various businesses come and go. Mining for instance, and how many fletchers are now in full time employment. Business has to change with what society wants.

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Just now, Tonka said:

And how does capping the number of boats help the boat building companies stay in business.

 

It doesn't. But that ties in with the last line of my post above. If the used market falters, as I think it will, it will have a knock on effect on the builders. Most are currently snowed under with work and are making hay while the sun shines. Sadly I think some builders will go under when the market cools.

 

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5 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

I dont think it will happen but reality is that over years various businesses come and go. Mining for instance, and how many fletchers are now in full time employment. Business has to change with what society wants.

 

Steel workers, car assembly workers, Coopers, Blacksmiths, Thatchers, Shipbuilders, Soldiers, the list goes on.

 

The world evolves and demands change, always have, and always will.

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52 minutes ago, doratheexplorer said:

I can imagine a future where in order to be granted a new licence, you'll need a home mooring, thus placing an upper limit on boats.  Those with an existing continuous cruising declaration will be allowed to continue, but no more new ones will be allowed.

 

That was exactly the proposal in the 1995 Act at the Bill stage. A handful of people objected at the Committee stage on the basis that there were some owners who cruised steadily around the system and who therefore had no need of a permanent base. BW Solicitor Jeremy Duffey was so terrified that the Bill might be lost and he cobbled together the idea of the 'continuous cruiser', more or less overnight. We told him that he was making a rod for his own back as he didn't come with any definition of what that might mean, but he said they'd sort that out later! The rest is history, as they say.

 

Tam

Edited by Tam & Di
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I think there could be a case for removing dead boats for scrap before licencing a brand new boat but I wouldn't like to argue that in a pub full of boaters. Thing is that over the last few decades boating has become astonishingly expensive, horribly restricted, can't stop here. can't moor there, pay to do this, that or the other, over burdened with rules and, frankly, full of people with a sense of entitlement that I don't like (They probably don't like me either)  We have booked a hire narrowboat in a couple of weeks time and its awfully dear, but damn the expense, need to get away. Market forces thinned us out of owning a boat in the UK years ago. Almost certainly costs will keep rising and those at the bottom of the heap will drift away so it could become self regulating. Can't say its fair, its not but that is likely to happen.

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7 minutes ago, Bee said:

Almost certainly costs will keep rising and those at the bottom of the heap will drift away so it could become self regulating. Can't say its fair, its not but that is likely to happen.

 

Or the alternative (which seems to be happening) is the 'ghettos and shanty towns' of almost derelict boats that at 1st sight would look to be BSSC failures will continue to increase, As the costs increase (for both housing and boat ownership) the numbers will continue to rise but the condition of the boats, and their surroundings will continue to decline.

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Surely Covid is having a minimal impact on the total number of boats on the system - narrow boat building is a slow process and even if they wanted to, builders have not been able to flood the market in the last twelve months.

 

What Covid has done is turbo charged the second hand market and all those purchasers will want to use their, new to them, possession. In many cases these had been lying little used for many years so the network will certainly feel very busy this year. 

 

Long term I think this will be good. Whilst many will quickly lose their enthusiasm and move on a percentage will find canals suit them and will be converted to long term ownership.  Bringing new blood into the system is good - the more advocates it has the better.

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18 minutes ago, Bee said:

I think there could be a case for removing dead boats for scrap before licencing a brand new boat but I wouldn't like to argue that in a pub full of boaters

I remember when they did that on the Norfolk Broads, there was a rush by the various hire companies to scrap old (and sometimes historic) boats in order to licence new ones in their fleets.

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Is the number of boats on the system actually increasing that much though?

 

Yes used boats are selling more quickly but those are already on the system anyway.

 

New boats - well builders only have a set amount of build slots so whilst it might take longer to get a boat built there doesn't appear to be a huge number of new builders coming to the business just yet (AFAIK).

 

Unless things have changed dramatically there are large parts of the system with huge amounts of spare capacity eg The North East section of the inland waterways.

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9 minutes ago, phantom_iv said:

Surely we just need to build more canals to keep up with the expanding numbers of boats?

 

Or better still maintain and repair the ones we already have to such a state that they are usable ?

 

These are 21 of the 'closures or major problems' waterways taken from CaRT's own Boaters Update of 26/03/21, the latest one I could find:

South Oxford Canal
Lee
Grand Union Canal
Hertford Union Canal
Aire & Calder Navigation
Selby Canal
Leeds & Liverpool Canal
South Sheffield & Yorkshire Navigations
Standedge Tunnel
Walsall Canal
Old Main Line
Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal
Worcester & Birmingham Canal
Bridgwater & Taunton Canal
Severn
Sharpness Port
Lancaster Canal
Leeds & Liverpool Canal
Liverpool Link
Shropshire Union Canal
Trent & Mersey Canal

One waterway missing from this list is the Weaver, making it at least 22 waterways!

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Be careful what you wish for. If CaRT had a cap on the total number of boats, then the situation would be the same as their moorings, where the total number is basically fixed. CaRT could then introduce an auction scheme for any boat licenses that came up.

 

Alternatively, CaRT could introduce a bounty scheme. If you want to place a new boat on their waters, you have to prove you have "taken out" an existing boat. Boarding a boat with an unwary crew, stealing their license and scuttling the wreck would be the path to new boat ownership. ?

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